Trump continues with his rabid quest to “Make America Great Again.” Of course, we can’t be entirely sure exactly who this new America is supposed to be great for—but one can guess that in this new America there isn’t a shred of diversity or foreignness to be found.
Yesterday, he signed an executive order approving the construction of a wall along the southern border aimed at curbing undocumented immigration into the United States. Sounds more like he’s trying to make America isolationist again.
Today, the immigrant justice community prepares for additional blows as it waits for him to sign more executive orders restricting immigration from certain Muslim countries, ending temporary residency for DREAMers (DACA) and limiting legal immigration by making it harder for foreign workers to obtain visas and work permits.
Vox reviewed several documents thought to be draft executive orders under review by the Trump administration—among them the proposed “Muslim Ban,” “Ending Unconstitutional Amnesties,” and “Protecting American Jobs and Workers by Strengthening the Integrity of Foreign Worker Visa Programs.”
Of course, every single one of these things is an attempt to scare Americans into believing that immigrants pose a dangerous threat to the country and will be used to justify the racism, xenophobia and hatred he appealed to during the campaign. Among the proposals in these executive orders:
The order also suspends all refugee admissions into the United States for 120 days, as the secretary of state reviews refugee application procedures to ensure they guarantee no admitted refugees jeopardize national security. All refugee applications will be placed on hold for this 120-day period, and resumed once the secretary has issued revised procedures — except for applications from members of “religious minorities” who are being persecuted (which, in practice, will probably mean Christians in the Middle East).
Sounds good right? Except … well, facts. Which apparently don’t seem to be a problem for this administration. Trump maintains that refugees aren’t properly vetted and we have no way of knowing if someone claiming refugee status is a terrorist. This is just not true.
The vetting begins with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee, which determines who counts as a refugee, who should be resettled (about 1 percent) and which countries would take them. This alone can take four to 10 months…
If the UNHCR refers refugees to the United States, they then face scrutiny from federal intelligence and security agencies…
Syrian refugees in particular must clear one additional hurdle. Their documents are placed under extra scrutiny and cross-referenced with classified and unclassified information.
The process typically takes one to two years or longer and happens before a refuge ever steps onto American soil. Ultimately, says the State Department, about half are approved, and there’s no real precedent of a terrorist slipping in through the vetting system.
Also, for all his purported business sense, the Bankrupter-in-Chief has not taken into account the financial cost of ending DACA.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) recently extracted from a larger study the cost that will be incurred by the removal of undocumented workers. Focusing on DACA beneficiaries who are employed, CAP estimates that the removal of unauthorized workers who are DACA recipients would lower U.S. GDP by $433 billion over 10 years…
When DACA recipients lose their work authorization, employers will have to dismiss these workers and hire replacements. The process of replacing a worker comes with a cost to employers. Among those costs: having someone perform the work of the laid-off worker, recruiting and hiring a replacement worker, and training the new worker. The ILRC estimates the total cost will be $3.4 billion to U.S. employers.
Sounds like yet another plan he’s introducing that will cost more money. For someone who ran as a candidate to make the country more prosperous, he’s on his way to making us all broke.
Lastly, his plans include ending extended work authorization for international students with degrees in science, engineering and math from U.S. universities and denying work permits for H4 visa holders. Those on H4 visas are the spouses of highly skilled and specialized foreign workers on H1B visas.
Roughly 80 percent of those on an H-4 visa in the United States are from South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, and most are women whose spouses work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM fields, according to leaders in Chicago's South Asian community. Like their spouses, most on the visa are highly skilled and educated.
This means he plans to end job opportunities for highly educated, highly skilled foreigners who are already in the US, contributing to the economy and likely to stay here, in the hopes that Americans may someday be eligible for those jobs? Even though we know that few American students pursue careers in STEM and we have low numbers of teachers in those fields.
Yeah, okay. Sounds a lot like making America less educated again.
Just so we are clear, this is not making America great again, it’s making America mediocre and unwelcoming again.